France-based microbiome therapy developer MaaT Pharma has secured €18m ($19.8m) in a series B round that included probiotic-focused pharmaceutical company Biocodex.
The round also featured Crédit Mutuel Innovation, a venture capital subsidiary of financial services firm Crédit Mutuel, as well as Seventure Partners, a VC fund owned by investment manager Natixis, and a US microbiome-focused investor known as SymBiosis.
MaaT develops drugs to treat cancer and Graft-versus-host-disease, a condition where donor immune cells in a transplant operation attack the host patient’s tissue, by restoring patient-microbiome symbiosis.
The series B funds will support the completion of a phase 2 clinical trial for the company’s lead compound, MaaT013, in Graft-versus-host-disease for patients following allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It also plans to move into additional cancer indications.
Hervé Affagard, MaaT Pharma’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “I would like to thank our existing investors and our network of scientific advisors for their continued support as we enter into this next development phase for the company.
“A growing body of evidence suggests that a functional microbiome can improve cancer outcomes, and we look forward to continue building on our initial proof of concept by going beyond haematological malignancies into solid tumours.”
Seventure invested $1.2m in MaaT in early 2015 and joined public research institute INRA to add $1.1m later the same year. MaaT raised a further $11m in series A funding from Biocodex, Crédit Mutuel Innovation, Seventure Partners and INRA in 2016.
